This cook can whip up confections that make taste buds weep with joy, and make characters want to stuff themselves, because the food is that good. Be warned, though, this character takes insults to their art very personally!

Examples:

open/close all folders

Anime & Manga

Antonio "Tonio" Trussardi from the fourth part JoJo's Bizarre Adventure is an odd example; his Stand, "Pearl Jam", is centered around making incredibly tasty food that will leave the eater literally spewing his or her guts out. As it turns out, however, this seemingly nasty side-effect actually leaves them healthier than before; it's actually expelling and replacing damaged/infected tissue. And since Tonio is a professional chef, it's really good food on top of all that. Even the water at his place is godly (and those who didn't sleep well last night will literally cry their eyes out - but then they'll feel refreshed).

Sunako from The Wallflower is an excellent cook, especially with Japanese food.

Oddly enough, Haruhi in Haruhi Suzumiya turns out to be this as part of her Team Mom persona later in the books. She says she learned because her mom is a Lethal Chef. When she cooks for a sick brigade member Kyon thinks it might actually work.

Kyon: I could easily see your average cold virus fleeing in the face of this kind of power. Any bacteria with an instinct for self-preservation would be wanting out about now.

Almost everyone in Chūka Ichiban!. To add more relevance? A very good chef is named "Senior Chef". An incredible chef? Supreme Chef.

Ruruka Andou from Dangan Ronpa 3 is the Super High School Level Confectionist, and can make confections that cause people to experience pure bliss. Episode 8 of the Future arc shows that her chocolates can even put people into a mind-control-like state; it's so good that they'll do anything for more of it.

Almost everyone in Yakitate!! Japan. Okay, so it's more of Supreme Baker. Close enough.

Sanji from One Piece. As well as Zeff, but Sanji seems to have surpassed the teacher.

Satsuki Yotsuba in Mahou Sensei Negima! is likely the best cook in her school, which is quite impressive given that said school has over 30,000 students. She even has her own (extremely successful) restaurant. To give an idea of her skill, one sip of her stamina soup was enough to make Negi go from tired to Hot-Blooded.

Hayate of Hayate the Combat Butler has this among his "so domestic that women are jealous and threatened" skills. Hinagiku can also cook well enough to impress Hayate, and Maria is shown to be on par with both of them, even able to make things look extremely fancy without sacrificing the taste.

Najika, the main character of Kitchen Princess has an absolute sense of taste and is constantly amazing the other characters not just with her delicious food, but often with her presentation, as well. She always thinks about the person she's cooking for and makes a dish to suit them.

Mai Tokiha from Mai-HiME is such a good cook that her adopted friend Mikoto even cries when she has to settle for someone else's ramen. Though there were other factors involved at the same time...

Kasumi Tendō of course, in her role as replacement mom for the Tendo household. Her food is supposedly on the same level as Nodoka's — in other words, pretty much perfect.

Nearly every recurring chef from Shokugeki no Soma fits the bill, but special mention must go to Yukihara's father. His food is so good that a monk quits his religion to eat it right then instead of after his fasting, and Erina Nakiri, the especially strict resident gourmet considers his cooking to be the best she's ever had, by far.

Sasami is an excellent chef. In the manga, she was so good that she even baked her sister a carrot cake that she loves despite the fact that Ayeka hates carrots. Sasami even competes in an Iron Chef-style Cooking Duel with several other child chefs. In Sasami: Magical Girls Club, though it's the spinoff most far removed from the source material, this remains. Sasami Iwakura cooking for her family while her parents sit and await her masterpiece is not an uncommon sight, and this version is notReally 700 Years Old.

Airi, who in her spare time between running Galaxy Police Academy, politicking, spying and berserking when someone would call her "granma", runs a very successful little restaurant.

Millefeuille in Kaitou Joker is such an amazing chef that anyone who tries her cooking can't stop eating. She was able to capture Queen by simply feeding the girl some of her cooking, and the girl ended up willingly gorging herself so much that she became enormously fat in a single night and perfectly content not to escape if it meant leaving the food. She would have done the same to Joker if he hadn't protected himself from the food's taste.

In Love Hina, Keitaro, Mutsumi and Shinobu are this, and are the Team Chefs of the band. In his case, it's mostly a matter of his desserts being absurdly delicious, in part due to making his own Valentine's chocolate (to seem like less of a loser in public) and in part due to the Urashima family being a line of confectioners.

Cooking is one of the many talents of Usui Takumi in Maid-Sama!, as revealed when he begins helping out in the kitchen of the maid cafe where Misaki works.

Yumeiro Pâtissičre involves "St. Marie Academy" a school where students learn to become supreme pastry chefs (although main character Ichigo Amano started out as the other kind before invoking this trope).

A large portion of the cast from Toriko are this. As they are in the 'Gourmet Age,' great chefs are practically the world's equivalent of royalty. The legendary 'Goddess of Chefs' Frohze cooked dishes so amazing she stopped an era of war, as well as Setsuno, who runs a restaurant renowned for its amazing food. Toriko's Heterosexual Life-Partner Komatsu is noted to have incredible potential and is already a renowned chef himself.

Shinji Ikari of Neon Genesis Evangelion was often shown doing the cooking, and being the best at it in his household. Of course, his only competition was Misato, who subsisted on takeout and beer before he came along. Still, Fanon began to hold the view that Shinji was a master chef, and the Rebuild of Evangelion movies decided to run with this idea. His cooking is so good, even Asuka didn't want to share hers with anyone when he made lunch.

In addition, Soma's servant Agni is called "the Hand of God". It's not because of any martial arts mastery; it's because he's an impossibly good curry chef.

Miyako Miyamura from ef - a fairy tale of the two.. Explained by her both living on her own and trying to become the best in everything to regain the attention of her divorced and emotionally-neglectful parents.

The Gakuen Hetalia strips show Turkey hanging out with the aforementioned France and China in the "Gourmet Club", so he might qualify too. The history and influences behind Turkish cuisine in itself might support this.

Lelouch Lamperouge is one out of necessity of having had to take care of Nunnally for years...and because he's such a Neat Freak that only he is capable of measuring and handling every single ingredient in exactly the way he needs and wants.

Milly Ashford, the Cool Big SisStudent Council President, is also an excellent chef, and she's eager to find any excuse to cook or bake. As a matter of fact, she's the only person with whom Lelouch is willing to cook.

Makoto Kino AKA Sailor Jupiter of Sailor Moon. All the other Senshi love her cooking and a few episodes of the original anime have them turning to her for cooking instructions.

Tomoka Osakada from The Prince of Tennis, maker of excellent bentos. Justified since she's said to frequently help her parents to take care of her two cute little brothers, thus she often ends up as the default cook at home. She's also a sort-of subversion, as she's the tomboy in a Tomboy and Girly Girl duo and thus she defies the Feminine Women Can Cook stereotype. Not that Sakuno isn't a good chef, but Tomoka is mentioned to be the one with better cooking skills.

Rin from Blue Exorcist, surprisingly (or not, considering he grew up in a monastery with a bunch of bachelors). Shima actually says (in the manga) that "it's truly a taste which wouldn't be put to shame no matter which family you marry into." while in the anime Konekomaru says "you'd make a good wife". Make of those comments as you will.Word of God puts his food at Impossibly Delicious Food levels since he has 100% success rate for all steps and is good at pushing the recipe ahead just so to be perfect.

Surprisingly for someone living in Perpetual Poverty, Akihisa Yoshii from Baka and Test: Summon the Beasts is painted to be the best cook around, and could actually make a career out of this. If only he didn't spend all his allowance in video-games and instead bought some ingredients, he would be guaranteed to amaze his friends in a daily basis. Alas, a fraction of ramen, water, salt and sugar are close enough for him, and he won't see a need to cook unless someone (like his sister) demands him to do so. Contrast Mizuki Himeji, who is more than happy to serve her friends some of her home cooking in a regular basis, but is guaranteed to decommission the eater.

Shouma Takakura from Mawaru-Penguindrum. His sister Himari is a rather decent one, but Shouma is still the best of the two.

Nanako Misonou, the main character of Oniisama e.... She often has baking meetings with her friend Tomoko, and when she learns that Rei is living alone and has few to eat healthy, she decides to cook specifically for her.

Strangely, Lum of Urusei Yatsura is both this AND a Lethal Chef. This is due to the fact that all her cooking is made for her own Bizarre Alien Biology; humans get sick eating it (and most of it looks awful too) due to how horribly spicy it is, while the aliens can withstand it much better and love it to death.

Parodied in DearS when Ren and Miu compete against each other at school Ren is declared the winner of the cooking contest because her dish is 'the flavor of the cosmos'. This is another case of Bizarre Alien Biology because the food she makes appears (and is to humans) inedible.

Mami Tomoe according to Kyouko's comments in the Drama CD. The cakes she served to Sayaka and Madoka when they dropped by her flat? They might have been baked by Mami herself, which makes her eventual fate all the more ironic.

Madoka's father Tomohisa is an excellent cook. This is justified since his wife Junko is often at work and is the main breadwinner of the family, so he takes care of the house.

Kirby of the Stars has Monsieur Goan, whose food becomes so good and affordable that the Cappies would rather eat at his restaurant than at Kawasaki's. It's such a shame that Goan is just another Monster of the Week.

A subvereted version of this comes to play in Katekyo Hitman Reborn! when Bianchi actually tries to to cook normally, unlike her normal Poison Cooking. They all thought it was delicious... Until they felt all hell turning inside their stomachs. Reborn even commented that she actually created a new, time delayed Poison Cooking.

In Kekkaishi, Yoshimura could count as top notch when it comes to cooking, especially cooking sweets.

Asuna maxed out her cooking skill in Sword Art Online, which is pretty impressive on its own—nobody really bothers putting much effort into non-combat skills like that. The supreme part is that she experimented with different spices so much that she was able to figure out how the system synthesizes flavor, and create things that simply do not exist in the game. Like soy sauce. One thing that makes this particularly funny is that in the beginning of the game, when offered the knowledge of how to get cream for use as a condiment, she comments that she isn't in the game to eat good food. The "Extra Edition" OVA shows that her cooking skills extend to outside SAO, cooking lunch for her friends during their summer vacation.

In Durarara!!, the author drew up a picture of all the girls involved in a cooking contest. Most of them varied between not very good to horrifically bad, but Namie Yagiri and Mika Harima get scores of 95 and 100, respectively. Interestingly, these are both the girls who cook for Seiji.

As multiple characters in Anpanman are food-based characters, any character with a food theme of a prepared food or meal is the master of making that kind of food. Multiple episodes are themed around two of these characters arguing about who's food is the best. However, the number one supreme chef in the series is Uncle Jam. His baked goods win over everyone that tries them, and the head of Anpanman himself is the tastiest food in the series thanks to him.

Zero Squad's Kirio Hikifune from Bleach. Both Ichigo and Renji call her food the best thing they've ever tasted. Also, it says a LOT that she's skilled in BOTH Western and Eastern food, as well as pastries. note Chefs tend to specialize in few specific types of cooking; i.e, there's a reason why catering services tend to have a pastry chef aside of the normal ones. It's a plot point, as Hikifune can imbue her food with her own reiatsu and thus power-up those who eat it.

Shirokuma of Shirokuma Cafe, especially since he's a polar bear. Sasako the waitress is no slouch as she runs the place when Shirokuma is away.

Athena Asamiya is implied to be one in the The King of Fighters: KYO manga. In the last volume she makes dinner for Kensou, Yuki and Kyo, and the three find the dish she made for them note a Chinese traditional dish involving autumn mushrooms, probably this one to be very good.

Only supreme chefs are admitted into Toostuki Cooking Academy in Shokugeki no Soma, and only those who are far above that can become part of its Absurdly Powerful Student Council. Also, only 1% of them will graduate from school (the other 99% will eventually be expelled), so supreme doesn't even begin to describe the elite in this manga.

Chi-Chi from Dragon Ball Z is known to be a good cook by other characters. This is shown best in a filler episode when she threatens to stop cooking meals for Goku and Piccolo if they didn't go to driving school. Also, Videl commented on her rice and even asked for the recipe, not to mention that Chi-Chi cooks better than any of Mr. Satan's cooks.

In the elementary Wandering Son chapters it's shown Nitori can bake quite well, though she's never shown cooking anything else.

In Tokyo Ghoul, Yoriko Kosaka is mentioned to be aiming to become a professional chef after she graduates high school. Arata Kirishima and Haise Sasaki are both mentioned to be excellent cooks, which is made more impressive since both are Ghouls — all human food tastes vile to them, making it impossible to know whether their cooking is any good. People love their cooking anyway, with Big Eater Saiko considering Haise's cooking one of her top priorities.

Ryou cooks well, and is called out by her friends to give up drawing and take up catering instead, but her sense of taste is easily affected by her mood, particularly loneliness.

Shiina's maid Tsuyuko plainly defeated three three-star chefs.

Nyanta of Log Horizon is one of the first characters to discover the secret of the cooking system in the new world. He is also famous for his curry, to the point where the whole guild celebrates at the news that Nyanta's cooking curry for dinner.

Rin from Bunny Drop is pretty good at cooking for a six year old. She cooks better than Daikichi. When Daikichi's cousin sees Rin making breakfast she believes that he is forcing a kid to cook for him, though it turns out Rin just likes to help cook.

My Monster Secret: Aizawa is one of these, but only for cakes and similar desserts. She's capable of making an enormous multi-tier wedding cake in a matter of minutes, and her chocolates are so good that Akane threatened to destroy the earth in order to get more of them. Oddly, Aizawa barely seems to be aware that she has this skill.

Maoyuu Maou Yuusha: The Little Sister Maid, despite being somewhere in the single-digits old, is a brilliant chef, with every meal she makes looking right out of a cookbook. She even invents orange soda (she calls it "orange water") by mixing (likely reduced) orange juice with water from a naturally carbonated spring.

Grandma Duck is one of these; her famous cooking skills are central to many of the plots of the stories starring (or just featuring) her.

Though it varies heavily from story to story, her grandson Donald Duck is often depicted as having inherited at least some of her skill around the kitchen. While some writers love to portray him as a Lethal Chef (and he probably shouldn't be allowed to experiment too much), the most common interpretation is that he's a very good cook and could probably have made a decent living as a professional chef if it hadn't been for his Hair-Trigger Temper, Miles Gloriosus tendencies and constant bad luck.

Gus Goose, Grandma Duck's grandson and farm help, is actually a pretty great cook as well. He's just far more interested in eating than cooking, so it doesn't come up very often.

Ma Hunker (the original Red Tornado) was this during the Golden Age, to the point of being chef for the Justice Society the times she appeared with them.

In the Garfield strip, Jon's mother is a great cook, especially when it comes to baking pies and preparing potatoes. She once prepared a meal with eight kinds of potatoes (her personal best).

Though it is rarely shown, Magneto (yes, that Magneto) is a highly skilled cook who knows how to create delicious meals even with few ingredients to work with. This is actually justified, given that he grew up in the Warsaw Ghetto and Auschwitz and developed these skills for the survival of himself and his family.

One of the children attending PS238 has a metahuman ability to turn anything into food, and he can decide how nutritious or fattening the food will be. In one instance he produced something that tasted like a high quality chocolate covered ice cream bar. However, he can't change the appearance of what he's converted, so food that he makes from rocks still looks like rocks.

There was a Mickey Mouse story where two of these chefs dueled for the Supremest Chef. Somehow Goofy sneaked into the contest. If you think you know the outcome now: The local villain hypnotized the chefs to steal their secret master recipes (they all became a Lethal Chef while hypnotized), and inadvertently also Goofy, turning him from Lethal Chef into this trope.

Hikari Horaki was also given this role; makes sense considering she tries to be a Team Mom.

Unfinished Business: Irina is built up as one, and when it comes time for the protagonists to actually eat, she delivers. Of course given that most of them have been living in Antarctica for long periods of time they probably don't exactly have the same standards as high-class restaurant critics, but her skills are said to be rather impressive.

Ron Stoppable from Kim Possible tends to be portrayed as a culinary master far beyond even what the show provided. One example is from Vacation From The Norm where Ron is actually a sous chef for a super fancy restaurant not even a year after high school finishes.

Speaking of Ron Stoppable, in the Star Trek fusion Kim Possible: The Next Generation, he's a professional chef while Kim serves on the Enterprise... he's so skilled that Q himself goes to 23rd Century Earth on a regular basis for Ron's signature dish. When he eventually sets up shop on the Enterprise, he's acknowledged to have mastered the preparation of glagh by Klingon High Command.

Films — Animation

The Other Mother in Coraline is shown to be able to whip out what is basically the very definition of Food Porn at a moment's notice.

a major plot point in Simply Irresistable. Sarah Michelle Gellar's character is the daughter of a Supreme Chef, but failing to follow in her footsteps. Then (apparently) she finds a magical crab (Don'tAsk) who 'inspires' her to such culinary heights that Sean Patrick Flannery accuses her of enchanting him via her food. (look, I only watched this movie for the actors, okay?)

Zeke from High School Musical is a basketball player who secretly loves to bake, and gives some cookies to Sharpay, who acts very dismissive of him and his crush on her. How good are those cookies? At the end of the movie, after she actually eats them, Sharpay quite literally runs into his arms, begging for more, and lets out a Squee! when Zeke offers to make her a creme brule next. Apparently Through His Stomach goes both ways.

Literature

In Lois McMaster Bujold's novel Memory, Miles Vorkosigan hires his gate guard's mother as a cook, based on the elaborate gourmet box lunch she prepares for her son. He's right, she's one of these. Suddenly he starts getting visitors at mealtime. And attempts by his relatives — including his parents — to hire her away. General opinion is that Ma Kosti could make a meal fit for the Emperor if her base ingredient was cardboard. The last is not an exaggeration. She does make a dish fit for the Emperor — literally, as it's served and beloved at the Emperor's wedding — when her base ingredient is nutrient paste produced in the guts of a genetically engineered cockroach.

The main character in Joanne Harris' Chocolat and The Film of the Book is a chocolatier whose creations are mouth-watering enough to win over an entire town of strict Catholics during Lent.

In Mur Lafferty's novel Playing for Keeps one of the characters has a superpower that makes her a Supreme Chef. She intuitively knows what kind of food everyone around her likes and exactly how to prepare it.

This is why Amelia Bedelia, the protagonist of the children's book series of the same name, always keeps her job; she's somewhat of a ditz who's so Literal-Minded, she always messes up her instructions by taking figures of speech and various terminology too literally. (For instance, when told to put out the lights, she puts them out on the clothesline.) Nonetheless, she's always forgiven by her employers because her baking is second to none.

The volatile and mercenary French chef Anatole in P. G. Wodehouse's Jeeves and Wooster stories. He serves as a Living MacGuffin, with various Upper Class Twits constantly plotting to either obtain or retain his peerless services. The threat of being banned from sampling his gastronomic delights is often the club wielded by Bertie's Aunt Dahlia when he displays his unwillingness to commit his assistance to her latest Zany Scheme.

The eponymous character of James White's The Galactic Gourmet ran out of professional challenges at the five-star restaurant he ran at a multispecies hotel, and was feeling bored until a Kelgian diner personally thanked him for a good meal, having just been released from Sector General. This led to the Great Gurronsevas heading for the Final Frontier - hospital food. He became the Chief Dietician of Sector General. (Since he effectively became a head of department without going through the hospital's usual screening and training procedures, Hilarity Ensues.)

Dracula. Yes, thatDracula. In the original Bram Stoker novel, when Harker is staying at Castle Dracula, he notes in his journal that the food is very good. Later, it's revealed that there are no servants (it would be tough to get people to work for a, y'know, vampire) and Dracula has been doing all the work, such as cooking. Apparently, when you're an undying abomination you have time to pick up a culinary hobby. Either him or his wives.

Charity Carpenter from The Dresden Files. According to Harry, "She could whip up a five-course meal for twelve from an egg, two spaghetti noodles, some household chemicals, and a stick of chewing gum." Too bad that gene apparently skipped over Molly.

In David R. Palmer's Emergence, the eleven-year-old boy who calls himself "Adam" turns out to be this, among other skills unlikely for the son of wealth and privilege. Granted that he's a mutant super-genius, it's still odd, and protagonist/narrator Candy (also an eleven-year-old mutant super-genius) comments on it, that Adam chose to include world-class cooking among his skills. Susceptible readers may gain five pounds just from the description given of the "work of sheerest culinary artistry" he prepares for Candy in the course of one day.

Polgara is one in David Eddings' Belgariad and Mallorean series, as well as in the prequels. Part of it may be that she's a sorceress, but it's mostly skill — and a couple thousand years worth of practice.

Nero Wolfe's cook, Fritz Brenner, is a supreme chef. Nero himself is pretty good, when he decides to exert himself.

The Eternal Emperor of the Sten series is a spectacular chef. A major hobby of his is trying to recreate foods he remembers from his youth, thousands of years ago.

Glenda Sugarbean who runs the Unseen University's Night Kitchen is so talented that Vetinari is willing to take her food untested — she would never poison anyone, not out of respect for him but out of respect for the food — and considers telling the guards to throw away her jammy devil bribes "a crime against high art". Apparently all of the Sugarbean women qualify: her grandmother Augusta used to be the cook at the Assassin's Guild where she made the world's best bubble and squeak (she left Glenda the recipe) and refused to let any of the students use her cakes for poisoning practice — and they obeyed because no one wants to upset a good cook.

Nanny Ogg publically scorns the idea of Through His Stomach, but knows an array of recipes for sexual boosting dishes, like Carrot 'n' Oyster Pie or Chocolate Sauce Surprise, that can leave almost anyone except Granny Weatherwax burning up with lust, as seen in Maskerade.

In the Village Tales series, local gastro-hotelier Teddy "The Hipster Chef" Gates is one (Bocuse-trained, at that); but all he really wishes to do is be his own pâtissier. And he considers the Duke of Taunton's cook, Mrs. Woolley, and the ducally-trained housekeeper at the Rectory, Rose James, to be his betters in the kitchen.

House-elves from Harry Potter, fitting their nature as the ultimate servants. Even Kreacher whips up excellent meals once he truly accepts Harry as his new master.

Also Molly Weasley, who uses her magic wand in the kitchen and gives it a really good use according to Harry.

Lydda the griffin in Dark Lord of Derkholm is a fantastic cook, despite only being thirteen or so. She's an oddball for a griffin in that she prefers her food cooked to raw, but none of her family members will turn down her "godlike snacks."

In the Chalet School books, the Maynard family maid, Anna, and Karen, the school cook, both qualify. The former makes a mean jam (as seen in A Feud in the Chalet School), and the latter's bread twists are often described as 'heavenly'.

According to Sideways Arithmetic From Wayside School, Miss Mush can cook beautifully when she's only cooking for herself and/or a few others. Unfortunately, at Wayside, she's cooking for around three hundred, and in those quantities her food hits the other extreme.

Honor Harrington has had no less than three Supreme Chefs in her household(s): Her steward James MacGuiness, her Grayson cook Mistress Thorne, and her father Alfred Harrington (who has a Friendly Rivalry with Mistress Thorne).

Gregory's Girl: Steve is extremely serious about his cooking, which even the head master enjoys.

In the Prince Roger-series, this trope lands on the titular prince's valet Kostas Matsugae. Stuck with the prince and his bodyguards on a Death World, he decides to pull his weight by taking over cooking, laundry and similar domestic duties, and he's good at it. He routinely knocks together perfectly respectable stews from day-old T-Rex-analogue and swamp water, and can put together a multi-course feast when given some money and a market to spend it in. Of course, whenever he tries to shares recipes with the locals, they all look at him like he's insane - the main ingredients of his meals come from ridiculously dangerous wildlife the prince and his men kill, which none of the natives ever considered treating like game animals.

Mihali from The Powder Mage Trilogy embodies this trope to the fullest. Anybody who has ever tried his cooking can attest that the man is nothing short of a god in the kitchen. Not only that, but he also seems to be capable of conjuring food seemingly out of thin air in large enough amounts to feed an entire city.

Arthur Dent in Mostly Harmless becomes a narrow version of this when he gets stranded on the planet Lamuella: he can only make sandwiches, but he learns to make them so well that he acquires almost priest-like status in the local community. If anything, he's even more respected than the local priest, precisely because he can make amazing sandwiches and the priest can't.

Babylon 5: Head of Security Michael Garibaldi is a very good cook besides being a top-notch cop and soldier. A subplot in Season 2 involves Garibaldi trying to get the ingredients for bagna càuda (basically Northern Italian fondue) behind Dr. Franklin's back (he was concerned for Garibaldi's heart health). "A Distant Star" has Franklin finally agreeing to try the dish as long as Garibaldi takes care of himself.

King Silas in the intrigue alternate-world drama Kings insists in cooking for his family every morning, and misses the time in which he went to the supermarket and "fought for the best melon", and still he goes to the grocery himself and buys his ingredients, yet they clear the shop. Because he is the King. This makes him this trope's paradigma.

Vincent in Eureka, to the point that the diner has no menu, and some residents consider it a challenge to order something he can't do. However, when left to his own devices, he can occasionally be a Lethal Chef, not because the food's bad but because it's experimental. He, like everyone else in town, has Mad Scientist tendencies and has a doctorate in molecular gastronomy.note Real thing, by the way. It's Cordon Bleugh cooking that actually works, somehow, with the power of SCIENCE! Strangely, one of its leading exponents never got a degree in anything or even went to culinary school.

Iron Chef revolves around the premise of having these kinds of chefs go against each other.

Kamen Rider Gaim gives us Pierre Alfonso Oren, A.K.A. Kamen Rider Bravo A.K.A. MISTER DANGEROUS. When he's not beating up on the other Riders for fun or hamming it up for the cameras, he's busy being a famous faux-French pastry chef. His dedication to his baked goods is so great that he even defied the local city-controlling (not quite so) evil corporation because their actions threatened to spoil a customer's enjoyment of his cake. And even without his Rider powers, if you insult his work, you will be hurt. A lot. Probably by a pan to the head.

LeBeau, the French member of the Hogan's Heroes team, is of course a good cook. The greatness comes in the fact that he can concoct excellent dinners and desserts with the materials available inside a POW camp, making him have almost MacGyver-esque cooking skills.

Mash episode "Too Many Cooks". A soldier who was a gourmet chef in civilian life is wounded and ends up at the 4077th. He's such a superb cook that he can make Army food delicious.

Both Don Dogoier / Gokai Green and Gai Ikari / Gokai Silver of Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger are both amazing cooks, but both of their cooking talents veer in different directions: Gai's cooking is for fun and enjoyment while Don's is tailor-made for everyone's well-being (the other Gokaigers, before he joined, weren't the healthiest of eaters). Don ends up depressed by Gai's accomplishments, but ends up being bolstered when Gai admits that Don's cooking is much more better than his, since he can't arrange it like he can.

Tomica Hero Rescue Fire once featured a Cook-off between Tama-chan and Chukaen. Tama won by making a delicious soup out of a fish-head and the remains of a leek.

Sookie from Gilmore Girls. She's so obsessed with cooking that she catered her own wedding parties and was still putting icing on the cake on her wedding day.

Monica Geller from Friends, who makes her living as a professional chef and offers a contrast with Lethal Chef Rachel.

Reese from Malcolm in the Middle really knows how to cook, he even forces Hal to work for him by making Hal taste whatever he is cooking at the moment. He enjoys cooking so much that one of Lois' most effective punishments is to ban him from the kitchen.

The Doctor appears to be a whiz in the kitchen, depending on incarnation. In "The Lodger," he manages to assemble a satisfying enough omelette for two from some eggs, stray cheeses, and salad dressing. Seems that living as a bachelor for most of a thousand years makes you pick up a few things.

Piper Halliwell from Charmed is an excellent cook and worked as a sous-chef. It's suggested that this was the primary reason that she was such a skilled potion-maker as well because the two skills compliment each other.

Marie Barone from Everybody Loves Raymond is described as a spectacular Italian chef. It's the only leverage she has against her useless husband, and it is the source of a great deal of jokes at Debra's expense.

Doc Martin: Martin himself. He might be uptight, a stick-in-the-mud, and unexpressive in every other aspect of his life, but his gastronomic creations show a singular passion and creativity. Notable that even during his relationship with Louisa he still insisted on doing the cooking for both of them.

Speaking of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, this seems to be encoded in the Sisko DNA. In a setting where nearly everyone relies on replicated food, Ben grows his own vegetables and can be seen cooking on a regular basis; the only time anyone seems less than enamoured with his food came about because he got curious about the potential of Ferengi tube grubs. He learned this from his father, who runs his own restaurant—and would have to be a damn good chef to stay in business in an era of food replicators. Jake, Ben's son, has also inherited the cooking gene.

Gordon Gordon Wyatt in Bones retired from psychiatry to pursue a career as a professional chef, and the consensus is that he is quite brilliant. Just don't call him a "fry cook" (*ahem*).

Adam played by Adam Arkin from Northern Exposure, who though lived as a hostile, semi-mythical hermit, was a genius gourmet chef who could create amazing haute cuisine dishes, as revealed to the series protaganist Dr. Joel Fleishman in the season 1 episode "The Aurora Borealis".

Dr. Hannibal Lecter just loves to have people over for dinner, and more often than not, they love what they're being served. Just as long as they're not told what might be in it...

Jack Tripper from Three's Company. Besides feeling bad for him for being homeless, it's part of why Janet and Chrissy want to keep him as a roommate in the first place.

Big Guy and Genius Bruiser Eliot Spencer on Leverage is an expert chef, to the point where owning his own restaurant is one of his main ambitions. He's also gone undercover as a Chef (at a cooking school) or Caterer (during which he possibly killed The Butcher of Kiev with an appetizer) on several occasions - and created the menu for the Bridgeport Pub in the fifth season, to what appears to be popular acclaim.

Kwan from Thunderstone. His cooking is wonderful, and everybody who tries it is happy to tell him so. This makes things difficult when he leaves for a short time, as apparently everybody else he knows is a Lethal Chef.

The Food College of magic in GURPS can make you into this, especially once you can cast Essential Food, which creates good food in its purest elemental form. That might be cheating.

Yu-Gi-Oh!: Marauding Captain also works as a cook for the army, shown to be cooking what appears to be curry in the artwork of "Marinating Captain" with several other Warriors including Field Commander Rahz and General Freed waiting for the dish.

Theater

Cyrano de Bergerac: Ragueneau has a successful bakery at Act II, with various assistants and apprentices and at act I he mentions he could prepare "Chicken a la Ragueneau". Everyone enjoys his pastries, but the problem is that would be not great feat because the poets at Act II and the cadets at Act IV are starving when they do.

Video Games

Pictured above: Cooking Mama from the eponymous game, she knows exactly how to make each dish and (usually) walks you through the process. If your dish is really good, people will stuff themselves.

Elzam from Super Robot Wars Original Generation fit this trope as well, an excellent commander as well as an excellent chef. The first thing he does when transferred to a new post is cook up a gourmet meal for all the soldiers stationed there. He's also able to survive Kusuha's "energy drinks" without fainting and identify all the ingredients used based on the taste. His Paper-Thin Disguise is even named Ratsel Feinschmecker, which means "mystery gourmet".

In Tales of Symphonia, Genis has a reputation as a Supreme Chef in Iselia, and has several scenes in the beginning of the game with characters praising his cooking. Though considering his older sister Raine, it's almost a necessity for him. Genis is not the altogether best chef in the game, however: That would be Regal, who earns the special title "God of the Kitchen" in a late-game sidequest.

An interesting twist on this trope and One Note Chef is that all the characters (save Raine and Presea) have themes to the recipes they are best at, even outperforming the Supreme Chefs of the party with certain recipes. Lloyd is better at foods with meat in them, Colette is good with desserts and recipes where a major component is fruit, and Sheena excels with Asian-themed foods like Udon Noodles. Even Genis and Regal have their specific wheelhouses where they outperform the other. Genis works best with everyday recipes like omelets, and Regal has the highest skill with the most complex recipes.

For Tales of the Abyss; in the short time you have him, Asch is shown to be a great chef via skit, in contrast to Natalia and Luke who are his fiance and replica, respectively, both of whom are no good in a kitchen.

Tales of Vesperia has their protagonist Yuri Lowell. When he says his secret ingredient was "love", Hilarity Ensues. Of course, it turns out he didn't really do anything special; he just follows the recipes to the letter.

Ludger from Tales of Xillia 2. Not surprising, considering that his job is being an actual chef. Everyone praises his cooking, and nobody minds him using tomatoes in practically everything he cooks (except for Elle, who gets over it). The developers put a lot of effort into making his dishes look delicious.

Rebecca, too. In her B support with Lowen, she actually makes him lunch to thank him for saving her at the beginning of the game. No wonder they can be paired up.

As is Oscar in Fire Emblem Tellius, from taking care of his little brothers Boyd and Rolf. He stopped being the Team Chef of the Greil Mercenaries to let Mist have a go, though Ike wasn't so keen on the idea. He offers to help Tanith with cooking in their POR support.

In Fire Emblem Awakening, Noire's supports with Owain reveal that she's an excellent baker. Likewise, Gaius is very good at sweets. On the other hand, while the Avatar's usually more of a Lethal Chef, to the non-human members of the group this trope seems to be in effect; Panne adores his/her carrot stew, which everyone else hates.

In Star Ocean: The Second Story, while all main characters can become Supreme Chefs thanks to the Skill System, Chisato, Rena, and Yarma are those who canonically apply.

In Star Ocean: Till the End of Time, you have Sophia who's Skill level in cooking is 43, she can even work on a budget and in a hurry as her Cost and Time modifiers might show. Nel is about as handy in the kitchen as she is with a blade and Mirage isn't half bad either.

As for NPCs you can recruit, you have Rigel, Mayu, The Killer Chef and Damda Mooda. Mayu and Damda might raise doubts for their skill level, but canonically speaking they're still exceptional chefs. The Killer Chef is said to also cross into Chef of Iron territory, and he doesn't really understand the difference between cooking and killing, hence the name. Either way, he has the highest cooking skill in the game, and one of the best time modifiers in his category.

The main character of Persona 4 is implied to be an excellent chef, especially for his age. He apparently makes most of the food at home, and can (if the player knows a little about cooking) make some very good school lunches to share with friends. One social link (Yukiko's) involves helping the character get better at cooking (though she refuses to be directly tutored if you offer). That said, he's only a supreme chef if the player makes the right choices, as making the wrong ones turn him into a Lethal Chef; thankfully, the truly horrible blunders just give bait for fishing.

Shinjiro Aragaki in Persona 3 proves capable of cooking restaurant-quality dishes (while lecturing Fuuka at the same time). With a little prompting from the female protagonist in the PSP remake, he makes a lavish dinner for the team, with every dish described as looking like a picture out of a cookbook and tasting delicious. The female protagonist herself is an excellent cook, specializing in sweets which can be given as gifts - Mitsuru, presented with one such creation, praises the PC's skills as being worthy of a first-class patisserie. She can even remedy some of Fuuka's cooking blunders!

In Fallout: New Vegas, your character can become one and a Chef of Iron if he or she has high enough "Survival" skills. Being able to turn a rotten piece of meat from an mutated animal into a first-class gourmet dish, such as the Wasteland Omelet.The ingredients? A box of BlamCo Mac & Cheese, a crunchy mutfruit, one unit of lakelurk meat, and a Deathclaw egg stolen from a Mother Deathclaw! As. Strangely enough, Cook-Cook of the Fiends is noted as a highly skilled cooknote His famous stew has brahmin meat, a potato, some jalapenos, and beer to cook it in. despite being a drug-addled pyromaniacal rapist. Of course, one should be wary of his favorite ingredient...

Incidentally, a sufficiently skilled Courier can also make up a recipe that substitutes for human flesh.

One of the targets in the Dark Brotherhood questline in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is a legendary chef known only as "The Gourmet". Certain members state that his recipes indeed live up to their reputation and are actually somewhat disappointed that he's to be assassinated. He keeps his identity a secret with only the chef of Markarth knowing who he is: Turns out he's an Orc.

The World of Warcraft expansion Mists of Pandaria allows the player to expand on his/her cooking skills by going down a number of cooking paths: Grill(Strength), Oven(Stamina), Pot(Intellect), Steamer(Spirit), Wok(Agility) and Brew(Could be considered the Lethal Chef path). Also, if you are under-leveled in cooking, you have the option to level your cooking through the trainer and her ingredients she provides(Though you do need Golden Carp, which isn't provided by her)

Jarlsberg the Chef-Magus from Kingdom of Loathing was apparently capable of crafting the perfect ingredients from raw magical energies and then preparing them into the platonic ideal of whatever food-stuff he desired, from the perfect plain bagel to the ultimate ice-cream sundae. Playing the Avatar of Jarlsberg special ascension path lets you tap into that cooking ability (which is good, as Jarlsberg was apparently a picky eater, and one of the limitations of the path is you can only consume food and booze prepared in Jarlsberg's Cosmic Kitchen). Amusingly, although his food preparation was divine, his bartending skills can only be described as "okay" if you grade on a curve.

Likewise, some of the absolute best food and drink to be gotten in the entire Kingdom can be found in the food court of the Hobopolis clan dungeon. Especially noteworthy are the hobo/hippy who manages Suddenly, Salad!, who somehow makes the eponymous dish taste good, and the jovial Arthur Finn, whose World Record Homebrew Stout is described as "like drinking a loaf of bread."

In Dwarf Fortress, any dwarf can become one of these with practice. Prepared food has an inordinately high value, a legendary chef can turn raw tiger intestines and bear brains into a barrel full of gourmet meals with a value rivaling adamantine weaponry.

In the online game City Girl Life, the Player Character has the "Chef Career" among her work options. If she chooses this path and follows it to the end, she will become this under the tutoring of the famous chef/restaurateur Gilden Moreno and his Number TwoClaude.

In Fantasy Life, becoming one of these is but one of the goals you can strive for. And if you succeed, King Erik will jokingly admonish you for stealing his wife and daughter's hearts.

Panty Shot from One Way Heroics is revealed in the ending to be a surprisingly great cook for a mercenary. When your character asks why he became a mercenary instead of a chef, he replies that he once tried to open a restaurant, but it failed since no-one wanted to buy a product named "Fresh Panty Lunchbox". Fortunately, later on he opens another restaurant which fares much better.

Sunless Sea: The Bandaged Poissonier, who can take a sea monster no one in their right mind would even dare touch and turn it into the most delicious dish you could ever find in the Neath, and will gladly accompany you in your ocean travels in search of new ingredients. That, and he's had some terrible luck finding someone worthy of his skills: He served European royalty until he got stuck in the Neath, then the Traitor Empress employed him until the Royals' appetites changed for the worse, and he had a nasty falling out with the Khan after he sent back a dish. Notably, he's a Tomb-colonist, who most people wouldn't really like near their meals (mostly because they keep falling apart and you don't want a piece of the chef in your soup), though one can only assume the years of experience help.

Visual Novels

Unlike her Lethal Chef sister Hisui, Kohaku from Tsukihime is a spectacular cook. When she isn't purposely drugging the food to make you go insane. Well, even then it tastes fantastic.

Shirou Emiya of Fate/stay night cooks so well to the degree that the Let's Play commentators are more turned on by Food Porn than the sex scenes. Much of which ties into his tutoring Sakura as a cook ... who he admits is probably better than him now. Then Rin gets her competitive streak fired up. And dammit, now I'm hungry.

Lilly Satou herself is an interesting case of VN heroine (especially since she's a deconstruction of the "PerfectLady" archetype) who's specifically described as a fairly good cook, but not an excellent one - she has a lot of experience and likes to cook for herself and her friends but she admits that there are some things a blind cook just can't do (or at least would take far too much effort to learn how to than they're worth).

The real Supreme Chef of the game is, surprisingly enough, Genki Girlathlete Emi Ibarazaki (who appears to have inherited her mother Meiko's talent) - but she's also a health and fitness nut, so don't expect too many deep fried pork dishes or desserts. It's made clear that, realistically enough, Emi doesn't "hate tasty things" or somesuch - she actually understands how and how much people need to eat and cooks accordingly.

Shizune Hakamichi, meanwhile, is as close as a very realistic game gets to a Lethal Chef (surprising, given that she's generally extremely talented at whatever else she does) - she doesn't even seem to understand the theory behind the food she cooks. Could be explained by the fact that she's filthy rich and may not have had to ever do much cooking herself. (She's seen freely ordering take-out at some point.)

Teruteru Hanamura from Super Dangan Ronpa 2 is a culinary arts master, and has this as his Ultimate talent. His exact title is "Ultimate Cook" but prefers to be called a "Chef" instead of "Cook" because it sounds more sophisticated. Prior to the game's events, he makes a promise to his mother (who is an Ill Girl and a Workaholic) that he would take over his family's restaurant so he can establish himself as a great chef once he graduates.

Piffany in Nodwick can end wars with a brownie, and her cookies can tame Eldritch Abominations and even end quarrels among the gods themselves.

In The Order of the Stick, the Token Evil Teammate Belkar is an astoundingly good chef. He's got skill points and feats based around cooking (he's a ranger/barbarian), and at one point he convinces a recurring villain to let him and Haley leave with Roy (Well, his corpse, anyway) by cooking vulture stew which he made using a demon roach to cook. Being who he is, he also threatens to cook people into his dishes, and even offers the Oracle the dish of his own lungs on a plate. And when Gannji says that his friend Enor is going to eat Roy's heart, Belkar suggests sautéing it in garlic first. His culinary skills are also used to track Vaarsuvius when s/he is sent to the Semi-Elemental Plane of Ranch Dressing.

Web Original

The three head chefs at Superhero School Whateley Academy in the Whateley Universe. Phase should know. He grew up in a family so rich they kept two supreme chefs as their routine cooks, and as a result he has a palate which is amazingly sophisticated for a fourteen year old.

It's also mentioned that there are Gadgeteers and even Devisors who specialize in cuisine - hopefully not of the Lethal Chef variety, though you never know. The superhero team Freelancers employ one in their clubhouse (which shares space with a hospital specializing in mutant-related problems), so presumably he, at least, doesn't get too carried away with it.

Dino Attack RPG takes this to ridiculous levels with the Brickolinis, whose pizza is enjoyed almost universally to the point where an incident involving one person disliking it gained a particular infamy.

In an episode, Lethal Chef (among other things!) Bender seeks out one of these to improve his skills. As it turns out, the Supreme Chef in question has a secret ingredient which turns out to be ordinary tap water. Yes, ordinary tap water... spiked with LSD.

The alien celebrity chef Elzar is this, being famous for his amazing skill at cooking. Of course, he's also an egotistical Jerk Ass.

Dexter's Laboratory has Dexter's mom, for whom it was revealed that the reason Dexter's dad married her was because of the muffins she makes. Apparently they are so good that he spends a whole episode descending into madness trying to steal the muffins instead of waiting for them to cool.

SpongeBob is the ultimate frycook, even beating Neptune himself in a cook-off on one occasion.

Though Jim, the Krusty Krab's previous fry cook is the Always Someone Better. Jim admits that SpongeBob is a pretty good fry cook — but he'll only become a great one once he works up the nerve to get away from the Krusty Krab and Mr. Krabs.

Digit from Cyberchase is a talented chef, and even had a cook-book published. He's so good, he knows how to reinflate a collapsed souffle.

Gwumpki from Quack Pack. His food is still delicious even though it may be bizarre.

In Disney's Recess, Vince LaSalle's such a great cook that he fed the entire school (Student and staff alike) with his dishes. He was even invited to study abroad in a cooking school in France but stayed behind.

The Smurfs: Greedy Smurf can cook almost as well as he can eat, and seeing as that's his job, it's a good thing that he fits this Trope.

Garfield and Friends: Mamma Manicotti works in her own Italian Restaurant and not even her rival Papa Plastique manages to duplicate her recipe.

G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero: Apart from being one of the biggest, toughest guys on the G.I. Joe team, Roadblock is also a gourmet chef, and several episodes give him the chance to show his skills off.

Marge, while usually a fairly standard cook, briefly turns into one after she has the family kitchen renovated.

One-shot character Michael, the son of mobster Fat Tony, turns out to be an incredible chef, wanting to become a professional chef rather than following in his fathers criminal footsteps. He's able to throw together a grea salad with weeds he picked together in the school playground.

We Bare Bears: Ice Bear is not only a master chef, but also the only one who cooks around the house...er, cave.

Supernoobs: Memnock, an alien warrior, is shown to be a very good cook. One episode had him cook an egg dish with coriander as an important ingredient and he often stayed up all night to try to perfect the dish. his ally and roommate, Zenblock yelled at Mem for his obsessive cooking, which angered him and made him move out but after they reconciled, Zenblock tried out the meal himself and found it to be very delicious.

''AdventureTime: Jake the dog is shown to be a great cook. He often makes bacon pancakes and is very creative in his plating.

Community

Tropes HQ

TVTropes is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available from thestaff@tvtropes.org. Privacy Policy